My experience so far

[VasVadum 1]

I really thought this would be a great game, and it somewhat is, at least as far as keeping me entertained for a while. But after a while it just becomes frustrating. It seems as if campaign is wildly unbalanced and it seems as though there's no strategy in this. Sure, you're told to attack a few areas to hack the firewalls, but it's just more destroy this and that. Units can't function without you there to constantly help them. The AI is to retarded to do anything alone. I have armor upgrade on my tank and end up losing the other 3 tanks that are faster than me somewhere a mile away because they can't pathfind on a ROAD. I end up seeing them bumping into eachother, doing slow donuts, backing up and moving forward then repeat because they can't figure out how to get past a tree or a small rock. There's several things I would like to see and others I dislike so far.

1. Needs better tutorials. I barely got squat for a tutorial.

2. Tutorial islands need to have their defense rating changed to "pathetic" or "pitiful". I move on from the 5th island and find that it's quadruple the difficulty than the last, and every island after at, even if all say they are weak, are double the difficulty than the last.

3. A timer needs to show up on how long it will take for a dock to repair and reconnect to the island network. I destroyed one once and it didn't ever come back, so I restarted campaign.

4. AI needs better path finding. Seriously, it's bad when they can't drive on a road very well, let alone when there is no road, they'll get stuck on every single object possible along the path.

5. Enemy units should not have infinite ammo. If I can dodge an enemy laser tank till he runs out of ammo, then I should be easily able to kill him right? Wrong, apparently the enemy has infinite ammunition.

6. Refuel all tanks. I should be able to tell my group to fuel up one by one, repair one by one. AKA aim my main controlled tank at a supply area, hold space to bring up the menu, the move command will change to whatever the supply area is "Refuel" "Repair" "Get Ammo" and each tank should go one after another to get their supplies. Rather than me having to manually control each one to do it.

7. Fleeing blows. If I tell all my guys to dock, they automatically pick the area in which has the most enemy units in it to drive through to get to the ship. Maybe, just maybe, they should know how to go back along the path we already cleared? It's not possible to control 4 tanks at once to get them to take the safe route. I'd have to bring up the map and tell each one a manual waypoint to get them to go back safely but by then, half of them will have died.

8. The grenade tanks have perfect aim almost. So good, that they ignore my armor and kill my tank extremely fast. On top of that, the enemy builds them constantly. Since I can't destroy a dock if I want the island, I'm screwed when I have to take over a command center that has infinite grenadier/laser tanks being produced each time I repair and get ammo and go back. I haven't even gotten that far into the campaign yet and it's already programmed so that you'll lose many units always.

9. Mouse sensitivity for when you are controlling the person (out of tank, out of aircraft) [Like in the first mission]. I don't want to try to turn an inch and end up doing five 360s trying to kill an enemy. It's so sensitive it's just wild. I don't know why it's so much more sensitive in the person than in the tank and aircraft.

10. If I were to wait for a storm to end so I can actually see where I'm driving, I would be watching TV for an hour before a second storm begins after the first. One island where this happened, it was just so ridiculous. First a dust storm, then without even a blip of clear skies, I had a thunderstorm, then it was night and raining, then it was back to a dust storm, then it was clear skies for a few minutes. There needs to be more clear skies than storms. If the AI doesn't function properly, than the person playing the game needs to be able to see what he's doing.

11. I would like to have a no UI button. To cancel out the UI mode to get a good screenshot. This doesn't effect my opinion on the game though. This is just a personal preference. I use F12 to capture screenshots with steam overlay, so that I can mess with uploading them after the game.

12. What's with the hack-capsule breaking constantly? Since when does a hacking device expire after it's first use? In real life, if I were to use a hacking device of some sort, or hack something, my computer would not self destruct. Are you trying to make it so we constantly have to keep producing a lot of things? Why not just make each bullet take 1 supply too? and each second of repair take 5 supplies. Seriously, the hack-capsule should not expire after use. Especially not after EVERY use.

Yea, I know. It's a lot right? I've only played for a few days now and am already frustrated with some of how the game works. I love it when it's not ridiculously overpowered in some areas. In one island, I was told that using aircraft would not be possible till I destroyed the AA towers. But I undocked a Manta anyway to try to get a location of them all. Apparently, they kill you in one shot, as soon as you undock. It doesn't matter that the AA towers can't see you. You just can't undock your aircraft at all because you're being shot through walls/rock.

People have mentioned on the forums here that it is possible to lift tanks and transport them with the manta but I have not figured out how yet. I sat there for 30 minutes trying to figure it out.

Also, one of my tanks ran out of fuel 300m from the ship. But, somehow he was still able to dock by moving forward 5 meters at a time then stopping for several seconds and repeat. I was trying to figure out if it was possible to give him fuel from another unit or pick it up with the Manta again, but it failed to work too.

The object of the game should not be to lose as many units as you possibly can, it should be to do our job as efficiently as you can. I should not be required to abandon units everywhere, build new ones all the time, lose them every time I attack a command center that has a crapton of grenade and laser tanks all ready to instakill you ignoring your armor upgrades as if your tank was made of paper.

One more thing I thought should be mentioned. There are 3 achievements that make no sense at all. "capture islands without using load"... What is "load"?

I still like the game, and will continue trying. At least until it gets so frustrating that it becomes more hassle than fun.

[species1571 65]

Some points I agree with you, others I don't, or don't understand.

1. Not really, the tutorial was adequate for giving you an introduction to the basic operation. Most things are pretty selfexplanatory anyway.

2. Again, the tutorial islands are only there to introduce you to the basics, you have to expect that it gets much harder when you move forward. I would actually like to see a way of controlling the distribution of enemy islands so I could make them all "deadly", as they are pretty easy still.

3. Not sure I have ever destroyed a dock, it should still become friendly anyway even if it isn't connected. No biggie I think.

4. AI problems have been well documented, but they are pretty much acceptable now in the 1.03.0014 patch. Still far from perfect with a lot of slowing down for no reason, but just use the AI to set a unit on its way while you do something else, and help it out of a jam whenever you can, it does an adequate job.

5. I don't mind them having infinite ammo, islands are easy enough to conquer anyway.

6. It would be handy, but I don't often find myself using walruses so much that I even need to use island stations.

7. Yes, the AI does some stupid things. I can undestand for walruses, but I have also seen mantas plotting some pretty strange courses when instructed to dock. Mantas should fly in a straight line to the carrier no matter what.

8. Yes, the enemy grenade-walruses are too accurate, even when you are out of line-of-sight they will get you. You need to use your mantas more strategically, take out the P and H stations ahead of time, this will stop the island spawning more mantas and walruses, clearing the way for walruses to come in. I usually go in with mantas first, prioritising targets: 1. Turrets, 2. P and H stations, 3. Walruses, 4. Mantas

9. Yes, definitely a big killer for me. The way it is just now pretty much guarantees I will never play the campaign again. It is also present in the unit-control mode when you are trying to carefully aim a manta laser at a target, but yes it's definitely worse in the FPS parts.

10. Like the guy says, a good soldier fights in any conditions. You shouldn't be waiting out the storms, just play on through them.

11. I think there's an in-built screenshot button, it would be helpful if there was an option to automatically switch the HUD off for a second when making screens.

12. It's just to make sure you have to keep planning ahead and building hack capsules, it wouldn't be much fun if you only ever had to build one and it lasted forever. Think of it as being the power source which is self-contained and needs a replacememnt power cell, or microscopic nanite robots which are being injected into the command centre and need replacing.

For your other points, you only lost that manta because you undocked after being told you weren't able to.

Transporting walruses by manta is done by fitting a Hook to the manta's third slot. In the campaign, building the hook becomes unlocked at a certain point in the game. In the strategy game, everything is unlocked at the start, it is just a matter of actually making the hook.

If you managed to dock a walrus that was out of fuel, you were lucky. Once the manta hook is available, you would be able to lift it and place it down right next to the dock door or a refuel station. I once had a manta run out of fuel and it fell onto the carrier deck. I was able to nudge it with another manta onto its lift and dock it.

You shouldn't be losing units all over the place, I hardly ever lose a unit during island combat. If you are trying to hack a command centre when the island is still heavily armed, what do you expect? Follow my advice and take each island tactically, stripping out all the turrets and defences, then take the command centre.

"Capture island without using load" refers to arriving at an island, and taking over the island in one go, without having to load back to a save game. This is not easy in the beginning of the game, because you will lose units when you just cannot afford to lose them, so you load back to the save game before you lost it, but later on in the game when you have plenty of resources, losing a unit is no big thing and you just make another one.

[Appogee 1]

The campaign is just there to help you learn the game and try out all the different equipment options. However, it contains a lot of limitations until late in the campaign - some of them seemingly illogical - as it ramps up your available options. So I can understand your frustration with it.

The ''real'' game is actually the strategy game. In that game, you'll start with all equipment either already in supply, or able to be manufactured. I think you'll find it a lot more enjoyable than the the rather clunky tutorial campaign.

On your other points:

2. Island difficulty: once you've worked out the basic game dynamics, you can capture any island, including the deadly ones, relatively easily. But you should pilot the Mantas and Walrii yourself. As Species says above, you need to take out the turrets, then garages, then Manta and Walrii, so as to clear a path to the command center. (Or just kill the enemy command center with a Hammerhead to take the island out of his supply chain and deny him its resources.)

3. Timers: yes, building things in this game is s-l-o-w. That's part of what makes it kind of unique. Docks do eventually repair. A timer would be useful.

4. Pathfinding: yes, it is embarrassingly bad. The latest patch helps a lot, but you're still better off driving the lead Walrus and having the others in ''assist'' mode.

5. Infinite ammo: I never noticed, as I never let them live long enough ;-)

6 & 7. Queuing up refuel and repair, and retracing cleared paths: Yes, further symptomatic of the poor AI craftsmanship. But once you've cleared out some 'sub-bases' on the island, you can send the vehicles there one by one to repair and rearm, or give them specific waypoints to follow to retreat. So it's not too crippling.

8. Perfect enemy grenade Walrii: kill them with Mantas before your Walruses even get on the island.

9. Mouse sensitivity: hasn't been a problem for me. I think there's an adjustment in the controls menu?

10. Storms: Harden up, buttercup ;-) In the strategy game, you can't afford to hang around waiting for good weather, anyway. Get in there and capture the island, because the enemy carrier sure as hell isn't hanging around waiting, either :-)

12. Hack-capsule: it's not breaking, it's being ''consumed''. Yes, that seems a little odd, but if you only ever had to make one, then it'd make the game a bit too easy. As it stands, you have to juggle your build queue to ensure you have enough fuel and hack capsules constantly on the carrier available for use.

13. Over-powered AA: only in the campaign, and only because you were told explicitly not to use a Manta. In the strategy game, if you have a Manta with Armour 2 and a Shield, you can take out the strongest turrets if you aim well and take care. Cruise missiles can one shot them from a distance, as long as you line them up well.

13. Using the Hook: Equip a Manta with a Hook (available from the outset in the strategy game, but only later in the campaign). Hover directly over a Walrus - 3rd person camera can help you do this - and when a Hook symbol appears in the middle of the Manta's HUD, hit the 'use' key. Fly the Walrus to where you want, then drop the Walrus also using the 'use' key... you can do this from quite a height with minimal damage to the Walrus. On most islands I usually mostly clear the shortest route to the command centre, and then fly a hooked Walrus directly to the command centre and hack it. That's usually quicker than trying to clear the approach roads and official gates to the base.

14. Abandoning/losing units: I rarely lose a unit, except on Deadly islands where I've become overconfident or lazy, and tried to take out too many turrets with too little shielding or weaponry. My usual approach is to:

a. fly a recon mission with a scout drone or Manta, to locate the Command Centre, and defences.

b. move the carrier to the start point of my chosen best path to the command centre.

c. fly a well-armoured Manta slowly along my chosen path, taking out turrets, Manta garages, Mantas, Walrus garages and Walruses (in that order) as I go. Once I run out of weapons or shields, I autodock that Manta, and take out a fresh one to continue carving out the path.

d. Once the approach path to the Command Centre is clear, I hook or drive a Hack-equipped Walrus to the command centre, with an AA Walrus and Grenade Walrus following in support, and a Manta hovering nearby, just in case I missed something.

e. Hack the command centre, drive one of your Walrii to the nearest factory and hack it to capture its assets, and then return all craft to your carrier and move on.

I won't go into the strategic map considerations, other than to advise that you look at how the enemy's islands are connected, and then work out which islands to capture so as to sever his supply line and starve him of fuel and assets.

I hope this helps. The strategy game is fun, and will be great if/when BI show a bit more pride in their craftsmanship and complete the final 5% which is currently holding it back (ie, pathfinding, research tree, enemy carrier AI).

Edited December 29, 2012 by Appogee

[VasVadum 1]

Some points I agree with you, others I don't, or don't understand.

2. Again, the tutorial islands are only there to introduce you to the basics, you have to expect that it gets much harder when you move forward. I would actually like to see a way of controlling the distribution of enemy islands so I could make them all "deadly", as they are pretty easy still.

3. Not sure I have ever destroyed a dock, it should still become friendly anyway even if it isn't connected. No biggie I think.

5. I don't mind them having infinite ammo, islands are easy enough to conquer anyway.

10. Like the guy says, a good soldier fights in any conditions. You shouldn't be waiting out the storms, just play on through them.

For your other points, you only lost that manta because you undocked after being told you weren't able to.

You shouldn't be losing units all over the place, I hardly ever lose a unit during island combat. If you are trying to hack a command centre when the island is still heavily armed, what do you expect? Follow my advice and take each island tactically, stripping out all the turrets and defences, then take the command centre.

"Capture island without using load" refers to arriving at an island, and taking over the island in one go, without having to load back to a save game. This is not easy in the beginning of the game, because you will lose units when you just cannot afford to lose them, so you load back to the save game before you lost it, but later on in the game when you have plenty of resources, losing a unit is no big thing and you just make another one.

2. The tutorial islands should still say pitiful or pathetic or even none on defense rating. Or, they can just say 'Tutorial' on defense rating. And that would clear things up for when the tutorial area ends. I didn't feel like it was much of a tutorial anymore after the 4th island.

3. I destroyed a dock and captured the island. The dock appeared to be repaired later on, but it was still not showing a line on the map to show it was reconnected.

5. I can't do this easily apparently, and infinite enemy ammo is just nuts. Especially when it's a laser armor tank killing your unarmored pathetically weak useless manta in under 5 seconds. The campaign is so wildly unbalanced.

10. Yes, I like the weather. But not when it's 80% of the time. This much rain should sink the islands! Cause tidal waves, destroy the world in massive floods! And switching from rainstorm to dust storm? How does wet dirt turn into dust? And then it turns back into a rainstorm. And then dust. then 2 minutes of clear skies. It's a ridiculous amount of visibility killing storms. The game seems to calculate 7 seconds as one game minute. So, 8.5 hours is 24 hours in game. Are you saying that I can have 10 rainstorms 4 dust storms and a tiny bit of clear skies per day? Granted these are different islands I go between storms. I bet if I stay at 1 island for 8.5 hours, we will see unusual amounts of odd weather in a "24 hour" period.

4. Pathfinding: yes, it is embarrassingly bad. The latest patch helps a lot, but you're still better off driving the lead Walrus and having the others in ''assist'' mode.

8. Perfect enemy grenade Walrii: kill them with Mantas before your Walruses even get on the island.

9. Mouse sensitivity: hasn't been a problem for me. I think there's an adjustment in the controls menu?

10. Storms: Harden up, buttercup ;-) In the strategy game, you can't afford to hang around waiting for good weather, anyway. Get in there and capture the island, because the enemy carrier sure as hell isn't hanging around waiting, either :-)

13. Over-powered AA: only in the campaign, and only because you were told explicitly not to use a Manta. In the strategy game, if you have a Manta with Armour 2 and a Shield, you can take out the strongest turrets if you aim well and take care. Cruise missiles can one shot them from a distance, as long as you line them up well.

4. I always use assist mode, and they get stuck a mile behind me somewhere doing a dance routine around a rock as they try to figure out how to get to me.

8. My manta get shot down like butterflies in a tornado. One turret kills them at a range before I can even get close enough to shoot the turret. Mantas start out pathetically useless in the campaign.

9. Nope. no ajustments.

10. Refer to above quote replies.

13. I was advised against, not told not to. I wanted to send one on a quick run around the island dodging as much as I possibly could to gather intel. Are you saying that the devs made it so you aren't allowed to scout the island till there is only one AA tower left? And they put that AA tower in a spot that no tank could possibly reach so I had to use a fleet of manta (4) to destroy it, and docked with 10% of a single manta remaining.

------------------------

So apparently it's just the campaign that's so crappy and horrible. My manta are nothing but useless targets because they STILL have no upgrades and once I got the armor upgrades for my tanks, the enemy started using a cluster---- of grenades and lasers to make my tanks seem like paper toys.

---------------------------------EDIT-------------------------------

Something I noticed in the campaign that could have been clarified before. In the train tracks, there is a light you're supposed to mess with to shut the shield down. Why would you mess with a light? What does a light have to do with a forcefield? Anyway. It took me 30 min and then I had to go ask someone and THEY said they got stuck there too, till they found that out. Maybe, there should be nav points for important stuff like this and maybe even some maps with important info? I don't want to be lost underground somewhere because I can't get a map of the complex I am in.

The load achievement, I haven't gone back to a previous save at all, and have actually got several islands without quitting at all but I haven't even got the first achievement. Or is it only the strategy game and not campaign?

Barque can't pathfind if you are in coastal boundaries. He sat there behind my ship about less than 1 inch max zoomed just waiting with an ETA of 1 "minute" (7 seconds). I had to back my ship up to get my delivery and i was barely that far into the coast line.

Edited December 30, 2012 by VasVadum
Forgot some stuff.

[RichardCranium 1]

As of late, I've been experimenting with pure Walrus invasion forces in the strategy game for a change of pace.

I'll send in all 4 Walruses at once. Each have Mark II armor and ammo boxes. I'll have one armed with plasma, one armed with HEAT, and 2 armed with missiles. I'll set them to aggressive mode and send them to certain points along the way to the CC. Once they've cleared a path, I'll send one of them back for refit with Mark I armor, hack capsule, and Laser II to take over the CC.

Unlike Mantas in aggressive mode, the Walruses won't destroy everything that they see that can/does shoot at them. The Walruses won't always maneuver to where they can actually fire at something. Still, it's a change of pace and I've managed to take over several islands without losing a Walrus (I've certainly re-armed and repaired them using the various stations on the island).

While doing so, I found out that you can actually hack a jammer. I've also noticed that the island refuel, rearm, and repair points on the island perform those functions much, much faster than the carrier itself does.

[VasVadum 1]

I've just had even more experience that makes me wish I never bought this game in the first place...

This is the absolute worst cheat I've ever seen the AI do.

I went all the way back to my first islands to recapture them. The enemy carrier attacks me while I was successfully taking the island. It parks along the island and doesn't move anymore. I capture the island and send a heavily armored manta with a bomb dancing around the sky to dodge bullets towards it, he kills my manta before I even remotely get close. So I start moving my carrier towards his. When I get within visual range of him, somehow having a DUST STORM in the middle of the OCEAN where dust totally is all over the surface water..... He starts moving, starts destroying my carrier rapidly, so I managed to distract him long enough to drop 2 bombs on him after he destroyed my plasma tank in 3 hits with a single gun. So he "flees" badly damaged. I have 90% of my carrier modules 100% damaged, and barely anything with hitpoints still. my total carrier health is like 7%. I repair my engines and send a barge with fuel to myself, while repairing the engines, I start towards the closest island to recapture that island, figuring that the enemy carrier has to be damaged enough that he can't come back at me for at least an hour. WRONG, he teleports in behind me, from the exact location I just killed him from, and starts following me to the next island while I'm still badly damaged, destroys my engines, then destroys my ship and ends in a game over. Less than TEN %$#@ING MINUTES! Full health enemy carrier teleports in right behind me to kill me before I can even leave the island. How great is that? I spent several minutes repairing the engines JUST TO MOVE, and less than 5 minutes after I started moving, I die because your AI cheats all to hell.

This is the most frustrating game in the world, the AI has so many cheats, it's just no fun. How can anyone enjoy a game that's clearly rigged so that the enemy is invulnerable and can do anything and can capture any island with ease? He also instantly teleports himself to the WEAKEST islands on the map, rather than actually sailing the distance, poof, teleports right there. Clearly you don't know how to program the game AI because this is absolutely ridiculous. The campaign is totally unbalanced.

[species1571 65]

With so many people saying the enemy carrier is still too easy to beat, and you now saying that it is too difficult, I suspect you need to use better tactics. Remember your carrier is stil just a salvaged shipwreck at the start of the campaign, whereas the enemy carrier is fully loaded. Where did you get the idea that he would be out of service for an hour? If you have a full tank of fuel, repairs are done very fast, especially when you consider that he will be using timewarp while you are sitting there. You can use the same technique to speed up repairs and production, especially if you are out of fuel, just warp to another island and do your repairs in warp. I did find the enemy was strong at the start of the game, so I will say that a direct attack at the start of the campaign is a bad idea, you should avoid him until you have got your strength up. I have noticed some of the cheats like the ones you mention, like you can take his engines out pretty easily, but then he repairs them and they are almost impossible to take out after that. Also, it can take him as little as 10 seconds to capture one of your islands. But, even with these, I find it more fun to keep him alive and just slowly grind him down and eventually win the game.

[VasVadum 1]

With so many people saying the enemy carrier is still too easy to beat, and you now saying that it is too difficult, I suspect you need to use better tactics. Remember your carrier is stil just a salvaged shipwreck at the start of the campaign, whereas the enemy carrier is fully loaded. Where did you get the idea that he would be out of service for an hour? If you have a full tank of fuel, repairs are done very fast, especially when you consider that he will be using timewarp while you are sitting there. You can use the same technique to speed up repairs and production, especially if you are out of fuel, just warp to another island and do your repairs in warp. I did find the enemy was strong at the start of the game, so I will say that a direct attack at the start of the campaign is a bad idea, you should avoid him until you have got your strength up. I have noticed some of the cheats like the ones you mention, like you can take his engines out pretty easily, but then he repairs them and they are almost impossible to take out after that. Also, it can take him as little as 10 seconds to capture one of your islands. But, even with these, I find it more fun to keep him alive and just slowly grind him down and eventually win the game.

Your logic is flawed. One carrier does not enter time warp while the other one does not. Time warp speeds all actions of the game up, not just one player. Time warp will not be available in multiplayer for this reason. If he has time warp while I do not, then he is cheating and I would like my refund. Since I doubt that's the case.

He attacked me, I beat him, meaning I had to have damaged his systems down to under 10% to get him to "flee"(teleport away like a .....). If I didn't have time to repair, he didn't either. I only had most of my systems operational, he should have still had damage too, especially since he came at me from the location I kicked his ass at. I could not get fuel to my carrier in time to repair it, he destroyed so many systems, it would have taken 2 loads of fuel, one to repair and one just to get to another island again.

You can't avoid an attack, it's not possible. if he enters your radar, you're screwed. Royally absolutely screwed, even if you win because now apparently, you can't even get half an island away from the scene where you kicked his ass before he attacks you at full health again from behind. If I resume campaign, I'll only lose again, and again, and again, there's nothing I can do differently from the last save because the game is now locked in an infinite lose scenario.

Oh, and keeping him alive? It's not possible to kill him, I've killed him 6 times now and all he does is teleport away to do more terrorizing. This is campaign, not Strategic. If I could kill him and capture the other islands without him, I'd do that instead.

[species1571 65]

You cannot permanently destroy him during the campaign, as he is needed for the ending. But you can load back to a save before you became doomed and play out more of the game without direct confrontation. Campaign is not about owning all the islands. As long as you have enough resources to keep your supply chain alive, you only have to visit each island once, it doesn't matter if he captures it after that.

[Appogee 1]

As Species said, the campaign is all skewy because it's basically getting you to play out a scripted story, and needs to keep the enemy carrier alive so it can play out its scripted role at the end.

If you want a ''fair'' game, play the strategy game. In that, the enemy carrier is actually too easy to beat. I have to keep him alive just so I can enjoy a long game of capturing islands.

[VasVadum 1]

My game crashed just after I killed the carrier in the end game island.

Anyhow, why not have the stockpile island rebuild the carrier if you lose it (at a high cost) in Strategic mode? Then you can have longer games. Once you kill the enemy carrier, he will just rebuild it and be out of commission for a while. Unless you capture all his islands. Then you own all islands and he can't rebuild.

I don't know why the devs didn't think of this before. Strategy should be a little harder, and campaign should be a little less unfair. I practically had 60% of my islands as a defense type just to keep him from taking them all. So when I did that, he just went after me only, hit me 4 times in a 30 minute period, barely any time warp was used, 3 of those times I hadn't even fully repaired since the last battle. He left me alone when I pushed my carrier into the sea floor coast line of one island and he couldn't get to me, only close enough for me to shoot and him not to be able to shoot back. That was the only way to get him to leave me alone. Of course the enemy is always going to go after you if he's twice as powerful. Maybe his engines should not be as powerful? So outrunning him is ACTUALLY an option... Maybe only if you have max engine health or some such.

[Appogee 1]

I agree a respawning enemy carrier would be a good idea. Easy to implement, too.

In the original CC, the enemy could outrun you, so I think the devs were being faithful to that in CC:GM.

[VasVadum 1]

I agree a respawning enemy carrier would be a good idea. Easy to implement, too.

In the original CC, the enemy could outrun you, so I think the devs were being faithful to that in CC:GM.

If they made it so both carriers had the same speed with max engine health, then you would never catch the enemy carrier while he could never catch you. Or they could add afterburners to carriers for a quick boost so you can flee a carrier before it catches up. (Maybe at the cost of triple fuel usage.) This goes for both carriers.

[scrapser 11]

I just finished the Fulcrum Island in the campaign. So far I am quite pleased with what BSI managed to do in releasing a new rendition of Carrier Command. Having played the original endlessly I immediately found my footing with controlling the units. The entire campaign IS the tutorial. Anyone not familiar with how games were designed to be played back in the 80's and 90's will probably be scratching their head with CC:GM. You have to keep in mind that graphics and sound were still pretty primitive in 1988 (except for the Amiga computer of course). The attraction of games was not how pretty they were, online and multiplayer was somebody's idea on a napkin, and most people were still completely oblivious to what a computer was outside of a business mainframe or something used by NASA.

Back then games were such that it required you to use your imagination to fill in the blanks. I like to use the analogy of toys for kids...toys that push a child to use their imagination are much healthier and a lot more fun and rewarding than games that do everything for the kid. After they watch the novelty of such games they quickly get bored. But a toy that engages their mind and expands their imagination becomes their favorite. If in your childhood you ever had a time when you were without material distractions and ended up making your own things to play with from whatever was laying around you will know what I'm talking about. But I digress.

Carrier Command retains the old school style of play where you must use your head and be creative to come up with a strategy to defeat each island quickly and efficiently. In the original, this was critical towards winning because it was a race against the AI carrier to control the most islands and have a resource and production rate advantage which is how you leveled the playing field since the other carrier is superior.

My style of play is to control a key vehicle and have a "set" of other vehicles close by (but reasonably safe from harm until I need them or call them to assist). This mitigates the pathfinding some are having issues with. After you gain some experience and learn about the strengths and weaknesses of each vehicle, you can "read" the island and come up with a plan of attack. Carefully executed, you should be rewarded with success and it will be all your doing.

---------- Post added at 12:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:07 AM ----------

I agree a respawning enemy carrier would be a good idea. Easy to implement, too.

In the original CC, the enemy could outrun you, so I think the devs were being faithful to that in CC:GM.

Once while playing the original, I arrived at an enemy island and the enemy carrier was on the opposite side. I deployed a walrus and drove across the island just in time to see it finish rotating to point away from the island and then it took off. It was like watching the starship Enterprise engage warp speed. For a second it was there, and then...whoosh! Right to the horizon it went in the blink of an eye. Stunning to see.

Edited January 7, 2013 by scrapser

[Appogee 1]

For a second it was there, and then...whoosh! Right to the horizon it went in the blink of an eye. Stunning to see.

Heh. I knew it was faster, but didn't know it was that much faster!

[scrapser 11]

The campaign after Fulcrum appears to be off the scale in terms of balance. I want to ask for some advice but there are so few people here I'm wondering if people are giving up trying. I've stopped "playing" game and am now just experimenting with tactics. Did anyone reset any of the islands prior to Fulcrum in anticipation of defending them from the enemy? Seems if you just capture them you are left wide open once the enemy carrier goes live.

[Appogee 1]

I'm just waiting for the new patch before I play it some more, having comprehensively captured all the islands and defeated the enemy carrier on hardest difficulty setting, in the current version.

[Dreadnought808 1]

Scrapser, it is generally wise to prepare for imminent attack. The two times I played through the campaign, I usually left the islands as they were, until you know the carrier is coming. By then you should have enough resources to work with and you can easily bunker up your island chain. When they're defended properly, often the enemy carrier simply fails taking the island he's attacking, or takes long enough for you to take 3-5.

[wraith2021 1]

One of the main points of Carrier Command is that the enemy carrier is far superior to yours, even his mantas and walrus's are more powerful. In the original Carrier Command the ACC Omega (enemy carrier) was lightning fast, more powerful, repaired quicker and had mantas and walruses that were faster and with more powerful weapons. The ACC Omega also looked vasty different to your carrier, it was a more futuristic. I think they were trying to keep the game balance with the original, which gives the enemy an unfair advantage. But thats the point! You have to beat a superior foe.

[Socratatus 1]

The Strategy game is the REAL game. the Campaign is just to familiarise you with the controls and give you a small reason why you`re there. I played a a few missions of the Campaign then went strategy...

But then again, I played the original so knew what to expect- and I`m very please with it for the most part.